The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.